1. Field of the Invention
The field of this invention is Voice Mail Systems and the manual processing of messages stored in a Voice Mail System, and more particularly the remote control of a Voice Mail System by an apparatus that allows the user to both remote control the Voice Mail System while making practical for the user to manually process and/or listen to messages stored in a Voice Mail System.
2. Background of the Prior Art
Voice Mail Systems (hereinafter "VMS") are a powerful communications tool in the business world. Essentially, a VMS is an invention which mates telephone and computer technology to create a system of "oral mail" over the phone lines that is analogous to and often more powerful than the standard "written mail" system. A user of a VMS can use their telephone to call the VMS and leave oral messages as "oral mail." The VMS retains the "oral mail" in a computer memory. Among other things, the user can then instruct the VMS through a telephone to deliver the "oral mail" through telephone lines to one or more intended recipients.
The following U.S. Patents generally describe some of the features and attributes that are available in and that constitute a Voice Mail System: U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,752 to Matthews et al. issued in 1983; U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,991 to Matthews et al. issued in 1987; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,807 to Matthews et al. issued in 1988. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,371,752 a VMS can have, among others, the following attributes (1) Subscribers within the system can deposit a verbal message by using their telephone to call a "central telephone office" to deposit the "oral mail" in computer memory and select the addressees to receive the message; (2) The user depositing a message in the system may provide the system through their telephone with a number of addresses for automatic delivery of the stored message without requiring any further time by the user sending the message; (3) The system may require the user to enter an authorization code through their telephone which is checked for validity prior to accessing the message deposit function of the system; (4) After receipt of each message, the recipient is provided with means to instruct the system over their telephone to redirect the message, reply to the message by depositing a message of his own, store the message in a verbal file folder, acknowledge message receipt or save the message for a predetermined period of time; (5) The system also enables the user to use their telephone to control the retention and playback of the "oral mail" voice messages.
Typically, the features of a VMS are controlled by executing a sequence of Dual Tone Multifrequency (hereinafter referred to as DTMF) signals from a "Touch tone" type telephone. Each VMS is designed by its manufacturer to be controlled by varying sequences of DTMF signals from the user. For example, a sequence of tones and pauses might start playing a message, skip back 10 seconds, skip back to the beginning, skip forward 10 seconds, skip back to the beginning, skip forward 10 seconds, skip forward to the end of the message, or stop playing a message. Each manufacturer assigns its own communications standards which relate which touch tone signals or DTMF signals correspond to which functions of the VMS. Subscribers are provided with the proper dictionary of signals to function. VMS are thus a very useful means of conveying and retaining oral information. Moreover, much of the intent and focus of VMS is to remove the need for the generation of documents for the purpose of communication with others.
In practical application of VMS users often wish to manually process all of the "oral mail" or some of the information conveyed in the "oral mail" into a written document. Typically, this manual processing is accomplished by a person having the responsibility of listening to the VMS "oral mail" and then preparing a written document or other notation. Among, but not limited to, the forms of manual processing are data entry into a computer, shorthand, note taking, filling out of forms based upon the information in the oral mail, and/or word processing. Because control of the VMS is accomplished through the touch tone keypad of a telephone, the user would have to manually shift back and forth from their manual processing of the information, such as data entry into a computer's keyboard, to the telephone pad in order to accomplish their task. Such manual transferring back and forth is cumbersome, inefficient and can result in error. Pressing the appropriate button of the telephone keypad is even more cumbersome for a user who is simultaneously trying to perform some other task requiring the use of their hands.
The present invention provides a solution whereby the user can control the VMS with a "hands off" control of the plurality of features available from a VMS, while at the same time processing the "oral mail." The applicant is of the belief that he is the first to design a system that allows such "hands off" control of the particular features of a VMS while allowing the user to perform other manual tasks for processing the information in the VMS's "oral mail."
U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,658 to Kolodny et al. issued in 1987, illustrates a telephone handset which has five buttons on the back and sides of the handset. The buttons of Kolodny correspond to the "record," "playback," "forward," and "rewind," functions that are part of a dictation machine. Kolodny discloses that the buttons are intended to be on the telephone handset so that the user can make a phone call to a remote dictation machine and perform the function of giving dictation. Kolodny does not solve the problem of unencumbering manual processing of VMS "oral mail." Kolodny does not even discuss VMS. With Kolodny the operator must still use their hands to control the push buttons that emit the tone bursts and simultaneously attempt transcription of standard dictation. Kolodny thus teaches away from a "hands off" control of VMS.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,097 to D'Agosto III et al., issued in 1987 and assigned to Dictaphone Corporation, discloses the use of a foot pedal with a telephone to remotely control a specific dictation apparatus through specific DTMF tone signals transmitted into the telephone by pressing the foot pedal to control the normal "dictation" functions associated with analog tape dictation equipment of "playback," "fast-forward" and "rewind." The playback of "oral mail" in a VMS system is digital and therefore will have features such as "skip back to the beginning," "skip back" a defined amount, "skip forward" a defined amount, or simultaneously play the "oral mail" to more than one location. The features of a VMS are thus different from a standard dictation machine.
The dictation technology of D'Agosto III is designed for use with the standard dictation machines that respond to the few simple and predetermined tones needed for dictation, a tone for playback, a tone for rewind, and a tone for fast-forward. D'Agosto III thus discloses the hard wiring of one digit tones through the foot pedal that are compatible with a standard dictation machine's functions. D'Agosto does not discuss VMS or indicate that its technology should be used to control the functions of a VMS instead of a dictation machine.
In a VMS, the required number of ordered tones necessary to invoke a particular function varies from one manufacturer to another. Also, some systems allow the user to define their own "menu" of tone prompts for particular purposes, such as polling surveys. In any case there is a plurality of tones, tone order, and pauses between tones that are necessary to actuate the plurality of voice mail systems functions available from any of the several voice mail systems in use today. The one digit control of D'Agosto III directly associated with the functions of a normal dictation machine do not directly address the tone control requirements of VMS. D'Agosto does not directly mention or suggest that it is usable with VMS. Further, prior to the present invention, a "hands off" system for manual processing of VMS "oral mail" did not exist to the applicant's knowledge despite the existence of the disclosure of D'Agosto III.